The banding of merchandise into groups of a size desired by consumers is well known and widely practiced. The band may consist of rubber, a twist-tie, or string and may be positioned about one or more bundles or clumps of merchandise or about a single item such as rolled or folded merchandise (e.g., a newspaper). A particularly popular and well-known practice is that of banding clumps of agricultural produce for easy handling in supply channels and attractive display to consumers.
The marking of banded bundles of merchandise with the necessary information for inventory control and accuracy of processing by scanning (as at supermarket check-out counters), as well as for attractiveness of display for the consumer, has led to the development of marking tags having varied styles of hooks and varied holes, openings, or orifices for receiving the band material. The known varied styles of tags having hooks, however, are associated with a single orifice and cause a tag on the banded merchandise to be in an angular relationship with respect to the band. Other tags require the exercise of too much effort, skill and labor time to get properly fixed on the band or are easily dislodged from the band about merchandise, which makes them undesirable or unreliable as markers.